Hasegawa 1/48 scale Fw 190 A-5/U12 by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5/U12 w/Gun Pack

by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5/U12 w/Gun Pack

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Fw 190 A-9 is available online from Squadron

Introduction

Summary

Title: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5/U12 w/Gun Pack
Scale:      1/48
Reviewer:     Floyd S. Werner, Jr. IPMS # 26266
Product/Stock #:   07320
MSRP: $58.00
Review Type: Aircraft
Product Type: Kit
Producer Info: Hasegawa
Producer Website: www.hasegawausa.com
Provided by: Hobbico
Provided by Website: www.hobbico.com

In the Box

I’ve always loved the look of the FW-190A-5/U12. Designed with two cannon pods containing two cannons each makes it one mean machine. For those of us that are old enough to remember we had the Monogram FW-190 in the 70s and in that kit they included the gun pods. While not totally accurate it did make an impression on a little red headed kid. I built it with my kit. Fast forward a few years, okay so more than a few, and we are blessed with accurate FW-190s all around but no U12 versions, until now.

Hasegawa’s FW-190 kits are easy to build and really accurate. There are five sprues of light grey plastic with no flash or blemishes. The panel lines are recessed and typical Hasegawa fine quality. Amazingly the parts count is low at 81 pieces. A sprue of clear is also provided. Some poly caps are included for the prop. This makes a very good A-5 version.

So how would they do the new armament option? The armament option is provided with the two gun pods made out of light grey resin and four brass barrels that are added to them. The resin is a little soft but it does not detract from them as there are no issues with them. The pods are blemish free and easily removed from the resin pour stub. A simple swipe with the sanding stick and they were ready to install. The pods have a raised area on the base that will fit into the recessed areas on the wings. You will have to drill a .5mm hole for the barrels. The brass barrels have mounting pins to fit into those holes. That is easy enough.

The instructions are typical Hasegawa pictionary type. Care must be exercised as there are some panel lines that need to be filled in. I chose to do this before any assembly takes place. Also there will be some holes that are needed for antennas, steps, and pitot tube that will need to be taken care of. Again it is easier to do this before you actually assemble the parts.

The decals are typical Hasegawa. They are in register. They do ‘look’ a little thick on the sheet. The proof will be in there use. There are decals for two aircraft, one flown by Lt. Erich Hondt in 2./JG11 in October 1943. Hondt’s aircraft is quite colorful. It has the red swoosh up both sides of the fuselage and the white tail surface. The other is the Prototype, coded BH+CC.

Construction

As mentioned earlier I filled the appropriate panel lines and drilled the holes that would be required for my aircraft, Lt. Hondt’s.

The cockpit is very simple to put together but very complete. The parts count is eight pieces. While this may seem inadequate for the job it is quite complete. The only thing missing from the cockpit are the seatbelts and shoulder harnesses. Since this was going to be out of the box build I did not add them. The cockpit was pre-shaded in flat black then sprayed Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey. This was then weathered with Lamp Black artist oils thinned with turpenoid. A dry brush of RLM 02 warmed up the look and then a dry brush of silver added wear patterns. Apple Barrel paints were then used to add the color to the gauges and leather parts. This fit perfectly in the fuselage halves.

The halves were joined and the fit was perfect. A light sanding of the seam lines and the fuselage was done. Really? This whole process up to this point took less than an hour.

The wings were next. They are started with the wheel wells. I pre-shaded them and painted them in Polly-S RLM 02. The top wings were added and again the fit was perfect. This whole process was done within a half hour. Adding the wings to the fuselage presented the first less than perfect fit. The rear portion of the wing/fuselage join had a .15 gap. This was easily taken care of with some sprue. Not insurmountable but annoying. This is the second Hasegawa FW-190 I’ve built and this has been present on both kits so just be aware of it and deal with it. Just a little bit of putty was used on the round portion of in front of the wings. This is the area that made the A-5 version longer than the previous versions. The tail surfaces fit perfectly, as does the gun cowling.

The forward cowling does require some assembly. If you take your time there will be very little work required for a perfect cowling. I used just a smidgen of putty on the panel line behind the cowl ring. Nothing drastic. I could have probably used White Out. The fit was very good. Don’t forget to add the exhausts while you have the cowling off.

The engine assembly fits well. Part E25 is added to the front of the engine. It has a lot of fragile push rods. You will break some. I’m telling you don’t worry about it. The whole assembly is black and sits so far back in the cowling that I defy anybody to see how many are broken off on mine. It will be tough but let it go. Paint the inside of the cowling RLM 02 now and the cowl ring RLM 76. Again don’t forget the exhausts. When you add the engine to the nose make sure that you align the vertical cutout on the engine assembly at the 12 o’clock position. There is plenty of room to move the engine around and get it incorrect. This cutout mounts on the cowling. You can’t quite add the engine to the cowling first as it will sit too far forward. Take care and add the cowling while the engine is drying and you’ll be fine. My fit was really good.

The next thing that needs to be done prior to painting is the addition of the resin gunpods. They are easily removed from the pour stub. They are uniquely molded so that the resin piece fits into the wing cutouts. Test fitting revealed that they weren’t quite drop fits. I used a knife to remove some of the insert part and then glued it in place with superglue. I faired the pieces with some Apoxy Sculpt. This just ensured a perfect seam.

Painting and Markings

The whole model was given a wash in warm water with a grease cutting dish detergent, then wiped with Polly-S Plastic Prep. Prior to painting I added the forward canopy and masked off the wheel wells which I painted earlier. The white tail was painted with Alclad White Primer which if you haven’t tried it covers quickly and easily.

After an over night drying, I masked the area off and pre-shaded the model with Tamiya German Grey. Then I added the yellow to the lower cowling and the fuselage tail band. But wait. A tail band? Hasegawa does not indicate a tail band. Current thought is that there is no band. Yes this aircraft is too early for an RVD band, but I enlarged the photo and noticed that there is a definite color there that looks solid, not like a camouflaged area. How come the crew always pose where it makes it the most difficult for us modelers? I checked the Prien history on JG1 and 11 and there are aircraft from the period that have white and either red or yellow bands. It isn’t a white band but I could go with a yellow. It doesn’t have the tonal quantity of the red stripes. Since I’ve seen this aircraft I’ve seen a larger band. Whether this is promulgating a mistake or not I’m not sure. So until someone can prove me wrong I’ll keep the fuselage band. It is quite obvious that Hondt wanted to be seen. I mean who would ever put those red stripes on an airplane? If there is a photo that I haven’t seen I’ll gladly repaint it in camouflage colors.

The band and nose panel were masked off with Tamiya tape. A mix I had of Tamiya RLM 76 was sprayed over the areas that required it. Some highly thinned RLM 02 was added to the sides. I think I can see it on the pictures. Gunze RLM 75 was added next. A couple of drops of white were added to break up the monotony of the color. I also used this color to ‘fade’ the control surfaces. Some Lifelike RLM 74 produced the tonal difference that I was after. This too was thinned and a drop of white was added. All the masking tape was removed and anything that needed clean up was taken care of.

I added the landing gear at this time to aid in the decaling process. The landing gear on the Hasegawa FW-190s is THE BEST FITTING landing gear, period. I’ve built everybody’s Focke Wulf except for Tamiya, and I have to say these are bullet proof. They have large locating blocks that set the angle perfectly. They could almost be added without any glue.

A coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss was added to the whole model to provide the gloss coat needed. Again if you haven’t used this clear you are missing out. You can build it up perfectly with very little work and can add it in multiple layers. I won’t say it won’t run but it takes some work to get it to do that. As an acrylic it is very thin when applied. I love it.

Decals

So do they work? Aren’t they too thick to use? I was debating it but decided to take the plunge. Might as well try them, what is the worst that can happen? I started with the biggest ones the red stripes. If these were screwed up I could paint them on. Well I was not disappointed. The decals, which like I said looked thick on the paper, performed flawlessly and were actually quite thin once applied. They were perfect actually. I used a lot of water to float the stripes into position. I did this because of how large they were. I didn’t tamp the one into place until I added the other side. That way they could form a point as they should. Once they were even and in place I tamped them down. The rest of the decals worked flawlessly as well. I used MicroSol and Solvaset which worked great. The decals settled down into the panel lines nicely. A coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss was added to seal the decals. Then the model was given a coat of Alclad Klear Flat. The decal film disappeared, so much for the ‘thickness’ of the decals.

Weathering

With all the markings in place, I started out with fading the paint with dot filters of white, yellow ochre, and burnt umber. These were blended with turpenoid. This was followed up with a wash of burnt umber artist oils. A silver pencil was added to represent chipping on the wing root and leading edge. I used some Tamiya weathering pastels for the exhaust staining. I was not completely satisfied with how this came out but it was too late to do anything about it.

Final Bits

I added the turned brass barrels to the resin pods then the pitot tube to the wing. I removed the canopy masks and polished the canopy sections with Tamiya canopy polish. The position lights were added to the wing tips and painted with Tamiya clear paints. The prop and spinner were added to the nose. The sliding portion of the canopy was attached with white glue. Once dried, an EZ Line antenna was added to complete the model.

Conclusion

This kit is a real weekend kit. The small parts count and near perfect fit ensures this. The fit is relatively perfect throughout with the wing to fuselage attachment being the only place that wasn’t perfect. The resin gun pods and turned metal barrels were a nice addition. I would have liked if Hasegawa replaced the inboard cannons with some brass barrels. The decals performed flawlessly and were NOT thick at all. I will use Hasegawa kit decals again they performed that well. I need to go back now and rethink all those marking options of Hasegawa’s that I cast away as being undoable because of the ‘thick’ decals. Damn that is going to be expensive.

So a speedy, accurate build with colorful markings and aftermarket parts at a reasonable price makes this a winner for me. Great job Haseagawa with finally offering this version of the 190. For those of us who remember the old Monogram kit, this is light years ahead of that Monogram kit.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Hobbico and IPMS/USA for the review copy. You can obtain your model directly from Hasegawa USA at www.hasegawausa.com, your local hobby shop or online retailer.

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